- Category
- Latest news
US Imposes New Sanctions on Iran Targeting Officials and Shadow Banking Networks Over Protest Crackdown
- Authors
![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
The administration of US President Donald Trump unveiled a new round of sanctions against Iran, the US Treasury Department on January 15.
According to the Treasury, the measures target Iranian officials as well as “shadow banking” networks that Washington says are involved in violently suppressing protests inside Iran and laundering proceeds from oil exports.
Every article pushes back against disinformation. Your support keeps our team in the field.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the sanctions were imposed against the backdrop of widespread protests in Iran. They are aimed both at individuals accused of using violence against peaceful demonstrators and at financial structures that help Iran’s ruling elite bypass international sanctions.
“The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people. Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”
The list of 18 newly sanctioned individuals includes Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, whom US authorities view as one of the coordinators of the forceful response to the protests and an advocate of violence against demonstrators.
The sanctions also extend to commanders of units from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and regional law enforcement bodies in Lorestan and Fars provinces, where, according to the US, security forces fired on protesters.
In addition, a separate tranche of restrictions targets money-laundering networks connected to the state-owned Bank Melli and Shahr Bank. OFAC said Iran used these networks to launder billions of dollars in revenue from oil and petrochemical exports through shell companies based in the UAE, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
US officials say some of these funds were used to finance domestic repression and to support Iran-linked groups abroad.
Earlier, Russia assisted Iran in developing the technical systems that made possible what has been described as one of the most extensive and sophisticated internet shutdowns ever recorded.
According to the report, deep packet inspection enables Iranian authorities to do more than simply block websites. It allows them to throttle or disrupt traffic to specific applications, virtual private networks, and messaging services, as well as to selectively curb access to platforms used to organize protests.
-29ed98e0f248ee005bb84bfbf7f30adf.jpg)
-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
